Ryan Thomas Goodenough

I’m back in Syracuse finally after quite a busy summer. Classes are going well so far, as I try to finish everything up. I can’t believe that in 8 months, it will all be over. Being back at school also means more updates!

Unfortunately, the year hasn’t started off perfectly. On Monday, August 29th, my grandfather died after suffering a staff infection. It feels strange knowing that 3 or 4 weeks ago, he was out in California and Mexico, visiting with myself, Jon, Reyna, Ron, and Marsha. Things can always change, but this was certainly unexpected. I will be attending the funeral on Saturday. I’m not sure if it has quite hit me yet…

Well, I made it back to Maine finally. After spending a week with Emily’s parents, I came back to Maine last Monday. Emily stayed with us until Saturday and we were able to play lots of games and go to Bar Harbor in the meantime. As I’ve said in my last two posts, sorry for the lack of updates, but until I get back to school with a stable internet connection, you’ll have to miss out. In the meantime, I’m going to try and enjoy my last few days of summer.

I can’t believe how quickly time goes sometimes. I’ve been with Emily and her family for about a week now. Like I hinted at in my last post, we’ve had a ton of great meals. Today we’re having a BBQ and tomorrow we’re going to Lake Placid, which I’m quite excited to see. In the meantime, I’ve upgraded my phone so that I can take better pictures on the go. I’ll be picking that up in Maine, so expect to see a lot of pictures of my home in Birch Harbor in a short time.

Sorry for not updating this as much as I would like, but as soon as I get back to school, expect daily updates.

After a six hour flight, I made it back to the East Coast on Sunday morning. Emily was there to pick me up and we headed over to our appartment to clean/move-in. On Monday, we went to her house and had an excellent ribs dinner. Speaking of ribs, we’re having some great meals this week: turkey dinner, pocket pizza, turkey noodle soup (with Doodle’s Noodles), and some hamburgers. Gotta get some fat on my bones after California.

We will probably also head over to the drive-in and Lake Placid. It just feels so nice to finally relax after a pretty busy summer. Next Monday, we head back to Maine to see my parents. I can’t wait to see them! Updates might be few and far between this week, but I’ll try. When I get back to Maine, I’ll post a video of Xander that I took.

This is my last post of the California Adventures series. On Saturday, I fly out of LAX at 11:20 and get to Syracuse at 9:56am EST. Emily and I are going to move into our appartment (can’t wait to see her!!), then I’m going to spend a week with her family and then 2 weeks with mine. Then it’s back to Syracuse for my senior year (yay!). To sum up the California experience properly, I’ve created two top five lists. One lists the things I loved most about my experience and the other lists the things I hated. To all that I’ve spent time with in California, I’ll miss you. I might be back sometime!

Top 5 Things I Love about California
1) My internship
2) The family and friends I’ve seen out here
3) Tri-tip, Otter Pops, In-N-Out, and other great food
4) Disneyland/OC Fair
5) Santa Monica

Top 5 Things I’ve Hated Out Here
1) Hippocrits (No one walks, bikes out here, yet Californians say they are “energy-conscious”)
2) Lack of public transportation
3) Waiters/Waitresses who want to be famous
4) People who don’t use signal lights
5) Lack of changing weather

I’ve had a fantastic time out here, but I want to go back East. I want to see the leaves change colors, see snow on the ground, and see my family and friends. Goodbye California!

Apple is the best company out there. Their most recent brainchild is the Mighty Mouse, a two-button mouse with..well, no buttons. The “scroll wheel” is now a “scroll knob” that works in 360 degrees. There’s even a sound chip inside the mouse to give you the feel of buttons and a trackball. Cool? You bet it is. Have I mentioned yet that you should all be working with Macs? Think of it this way–you get all of their cool hardware (Mighty Mouse, Mac Mini, iSight, Powerbook) and all of the cool software (Final Cut, iPhoto, DVD Studio, Garageband), and if you really need to use a Windows program, you can fire up “Virtual PC” which will simulate Windows on your Mac. Stop dealing with crashes, spyware, and viruses–come on over to the good side.

In case you missed it, the 10th planet has been discovered. “Planet X” is not a new thought, but this discovery is being hailed as more legitimate. If Planet X does indeed exist, textbook makers will not be happy. This 10th planet is supposed to be larger than Pluto and about 57x farther away from the sun than the Earth. For a space nerd like me, it’s pretty interesting stuff!